Numerical Simulation of a Parabolic Dish Solar Collector filled with a Two-Phase Nano-fluid

A parabolic dish solar collector system is one of the main types of concentrated solar power systems that are based on point focusing and is more beneficial than the other kinds of concentrated solar power systems. Most of the literature concerning concentrated solar power systems focused on thermal losses and their relationship to the receivers with different geometries. A few former researches have investigated the impacts of the real solar flux distribution on the receiverschr('39') absorber surface in parabolic dish solar collector systems. The inaccuracy level appertaining to the isothermal assumption is more than that of a receiver’s walls with constant heat flux, simply due to heat transfer fluid running through the receiver. On the other hand, the constant heat flux approach cannot be so accurate due to the non-uniform distribution of solar heat flux at receiverchr('39')s internal walls. The current paper investigates the usage of a two-phase nanofluid in a baffled parabolic dish solar collector under a non-uniform distribution of solar heat flux. The geometrical parameters of the collector are analyzed in this work; for this purpose, the SIMPLEC algorithm and Finite Volume Method are employed. The heat transfer fluid is based on water/Al2O3 two-phase nanofluid. The most expected average Nusselt number is achieved at Re = 15,000 in June. In the next section, the effects of different Reynolds numbers and months on the predicted average Nusselt numbers will be investigated in detail. Finally, the PDSC with Z = 70 mm and F = 600 mm filled with nanofluid at  = 4% and dnp = 20 nm is introduced as the most efficient model in the present investigation.